Hush Money

by Peter Israel

Book by Israel, Peter

Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Jordan West · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5; not quite sure about this one - begins as a strongly atmospheric and pleasingly jaundiced 70s neo-noir, a sort of Jordan Harper's Everybody Knows by way of Altman's Long Goodbye (and also like the latter, a revisionist reimagining of classic PI tropes), but gradually the tone changes, and some of what seemed like hardboiled cynicism starts to shade directly into outright racism, not unlike late-career Chandler when the catankerousness curdled and went ugly; that said, the book also opens with the protagonist making it clear that while he's just as tough and hard working as his golden age predecessors, unlike those rogues with hearts of gold, he's a new kind of creature and an almost wholly amoral one at that, so perhaps the abrasiveness that develops as his character becomes more fleshed out is intentional rather than evidence of being embarrasingly dated - in any case, while no masterpiece, it is an engaging first novel that readers who like their noir drizzled with sun-lit malaise should appreciate.